These exercises have been devised to illustrate and reinforce a number of important concepts which underpin the development of an effective singing voice. They are designed to fulfill the roles played by the scale and velocity studies available in the teaching of all other instruments which are intended to train the player to recognise patterns and build up muscle memories as to how to configure the instrument (hand/finger pattern, keys open/closed, valves up/down) not only to play the given note/chord but also to move smoothly to the next point in the score. (Please go HERE for an expansion of these ideas) Please read the argument for setting up a 'voice configuration' system HERE and then listen to one of the exercises which illustrates these ideas HERE (female) or HERE (male) The new-ee-ay-a Wa-ay-ee-oo pattern facilitates singing up and down the 'cone' so that the voice is being placed very precisely for every note and especially aids the judgement of semi-tones. Some exercises have similar shapes but different tonality which means similar looking intervals have different spans (so easy when you are configuring your trumpet or violin etc) and the semitones appear at different points in the melody eg Here and Here or the melody switches rapidly between major and minor HERE. This is where the natural trumpet connection comes in - with no change in configuration, it is the arching tongue with the tip behind the lower teeth and the middle touching behind the upper teeth for a tee or ta or too articulation which allows the player to locate notes a semitone apart or judge an interval jump. Applying this tongue position in these exercises especially for 'new' (nyoo not noo) and other consonants usually involving the tip of the tongue, the tongue becomes the manipulator of the voice and it is possible to choreograph a song using the 4 vowel shapes of the calisthenics and this leads to a natural vowel modification technique to ensure easy passage through the passagio. Another important discipline involves the 'ee' vowel ensuring that the corners of the mouth do not spread but should be more towards the 'oo' shape. This is why in the exercises the 'ee' vowel links ' oo and a' moving up the cone and links 'wa and oo' moving down the cone. The corners of the mouth should not move outside the 'wall' of the cone. These examples are sung over a medium voice range but the full system spans 6 overlapping pitch ranges and are designed to move the voice through the 'registers' from below and from above with ascending and descending patterns and developing flexibility by providing variations which increase in tempo with each iteration of the exercise. Short audio clips of most of the exercises can be heard HERE Begins by introducing the vowel patterns (both chanted and sung) and then moves on through the modules and their more complex melodic shapes.These are just indicative as the full system has up to 18 variations per exercise. The system is available in downloadable modular form on ebayUK for secure purchase and can be built up module by module. Links to the ebayUK sites are provided. (use your back button to return) A concise overview showing the scope of the system can be found HERE In particular I have used these exercises with great success to take male voices from being unable to sing beyond 4th line D (reading as tenor) to being able to sing from D below the staff (actual pitch) right through the passagio to 4th line D (actual pitch) and then use this unexpected ability to sing Bass, Tenor, and Alto arias from Messiah.

This link will take you to a menu of videos with further links to YouTube - when the selected video completes please use your back button to return to the menu and select another video (this will overide youtube's choice of next) You are listening to just 1 of 6 pitch ranges provided by the programme for each exercise. This is demonstrated in video 10 which presents the 6 overlapping pitch ranges for calisthenic exercise 9. The combination of the shape of the melody and the overlapping of the ranges means that the voice has to ascend and descend through the registers in quick succession and is very effective at linking and integrating the whole voice.